Americans today have greater chance of equal opportunity

November 20, 2012

It's interesting how pundits like Cal Thomas ("Obama win validates sense of entitlement") idealize the World War II era as the "Greatest Generation."

As Tom Brokaw notes in the introduction to his work on this period, there were clearly flaws in this era. Women were still expected to work in the home, and African-Americans were still treated as second-class citizens. That's more than half the population being deprived the right to fulfill their true dreams, and half the population living subservient lives underneath a white male patriarchy. There is no greater time to be an American than today.

Finally, the ideal of accepting all people is being realized: black/white, rich/poor, gay/straight, male/female, young/old. I'm glad to see the younger generation (which voted predominantly for Obama) is forging its own "Greatest Generation" that is, this time, truly American. It's difficult to sugarcoat the past, when the underlying roots of this past hindered more than half of Americans from equal opportunity.